The lemon bars were awesome. I wasn't sure how they would turn out, because we ran out of both flour and sugar while making them and had to substitute bread flour and confectioner's sugar, which has cornstarch in it. And then I overbaked them, so they were a lot more cakey than they were supposed to be. But still, delicious.
The whole apartment smells like lemons now because Stephen deep-cleaned the bathroom in preparation for replacing the caulk around the tub. We've been trying to use non-toxic cleaners since we moved here, mostly relying on baking soda, borax, and vinegar. I hate the smell of white vinegar, so I add a ton of lemon oil to the mix. It's pretty fun to clean this way: the vinegar and baking soda foam up alarmingly, like an elementary school volcano project.
I've been using baking soda and vinegar to clean my hair, too, for the past couple of weeks. I went to a talk recently about all the hormone mimics and other nasty chemicals we put in and on our bodies. The speaker advised us to stay away from plastics and other synthetics as much as possible. Of course, it's pretty much impossible to avoid plastic (even the speaker was using a plastic water bottle), but I'm trying to cut it out here and there just for peace of mind. Since I make this stuff myself, I can keep it in glass bottles. Also, my skin is extremely sensitive and doesn't like shampoo in general, so I thought I'd give the no-soap regimen a try. It's not nearly as explosive as it sounds. First you rub a little bit of baking soda/water paste into your hair (I think this is different for long hair: you're supposed to dissolve the baking soda in a lot of water so it's much more liquidy--mine's like toothpaste), then rinse it and follow with an extremely dilute vinegar rinse (I use 1/4 tsp vinegar and maybe 20 drops of essential oil to 2 cups water). After I'm done, I rub a little clove oil into my hair for moisture and the nice smell. So far, I see no difference between this and shampoo; my hair feels the same as it always has. I'll let you know if it suddenly turns green or anything, though.
